Fly-fishing reels are high-tech equipments used for sport fishing of many types of fish, both in salt water and in freshwater. The development of fly-fishing reels has been rapid in recent years, where use of new material for the reels has made them stronger, lighter texture and a beautiful addition to the redesign. The improvements that have been made in brake systems for the reels have transformed their effectiveness in fighting the fish.
Traditional reels such as fly fishing reels have been for years treated as line carrier more than integrated part of the fishing equipment. This has lead to the fact that many fly fishermen use hands on the reel as brake when they fight the fish. Recent reels have been equipped with brake system, earliest with a flat spring system which clicked on a gear when used, later with more integrated brake system with brake plates or cones, where force was used to press the brake plates from one or both sides. All these brake systems; known today, do transform the kinetic energy from the fish pulling out line, into a heat where the energy uptake is due to friction between rotating brake plates and static brake plates. When fish take the fly or take a rush when fighting, the leader together with the line and rod all store energy in bending the rod or stretching the leader and line. When reaching the static friction limit in the brake system, the brake suddenly release line from reel and the dynamic friction coefficient now control the speed of the reel giving out the line. The problem is that the dynamic friction coefficient is in all brake systems lower than the static friction coefficient, and the result is that the rod and line release some of its stored energy, resulting in a lurch quite often braking the leader and the fishermen loose the fish. The brake system for common known fly fishing reels are therefore not taking part in storing the kinetic energy as the fly line, leader and rod, but more acting as a un-integrated part of the fishing equipment.